


Everything Has A Reason

by trionfi



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Family Shenanigans, Galra Keith (Voltron), Galra!Keith, Gen, also shiro needs a nap and a hug pls someone treat him well, galra druids, in which sporks are mentioned again, moms in space, more characters and tags to be added later, space wizards!!!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-21
Updated: 2016-08-13
Packaged: 2018-07-25 22:48:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 20,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7550242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trionfi/pseuds/trionfi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In Quantum Mechanics, Causality is what causes time, and in theory, everything that will ever happen to you has already happened</p><p>in theory, causal connection and destiny would be indistinguishable from each other</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. in which sporks fuel the universe(?)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Data mining for fun and profit. It's also apparently dangerous.
> 
> thank goodness for magical lions and space wizards

“Time for another ‘sporks’ run.”

“Wow, we’re really not letting that go, are we?”

“Nope.” Hunk just sighs, resigning himself to his fate. The Paladins have been hitting several of the Quintessence processing facilities located throughout the Galran Empire, disabling and destroying them while Pidge mines for as much server data about the Galran Empire’s workings as possible. Information has been sporadic, however, as it seems most of the facilities do not hold too much data about things other than shipment and processing. Lance had taken to calling the Quintessence “sporks” early on in their raids, and it ended up sticking. Even Keith said it once, but stopped after Lance joked about being shocked that Keith even knew what a joke was.

This new facility Pidge had found listed in files from the last one. The files said something about “Energy Experimentation”, so they had to check that out. Pidge figured there was a high chance of there actually being good info on their computers, and Hunk wanted to know what kind of experiments they were doing. Shiro, on the other hand, seemed slightly apprehensive, most likely because of being a victim of experiments himself. Meanwhile, Lance was trying to goad Keith into one of his dumb competitions about who could destroy more Galra Drones, but Keith was having none of it today.

“We’re approaching the facility now,” Allura’s voice coming over the comms. The Paladins had been waiting in their lions for the castle to get close, most of their hits are fast, destroying the facilities as soon as Pidge and Hunk get out with their data/machinery. Hunk’s hanger was starting to get rather full of various Galra machinery, and a lot of it he didn’t understand. Didn’t stop him from taking whatever looked interesting or useful. They were blowing up the place anyway. Lance occasionally made side comments about Hunk and Pidge making a robot army. The idea was contemplated.

“Scanners show very little activity, so it should be safe for you guys to go in now,” Coran says to the Paladins, before Keith, Hunk, and Pidge exist their lions’ hangers for the facility. It seemed to be a small installation, built into a large asteroid. There were no ships in waiting as of now, so they were able to get close with relative ease. Keith lands his lion on a smaller asteroid, and uses his jetpack to get in closer. Seeing that the coast is clear, he calls for Hunk and Pidge to follow. Taking out the few sentries outside is simple enough, and before long, Pidge is sitting in front of the main console with multiple cables around her, scanning through the data while Hunk looks through the machinery, while Keith keeps lookout. Keith can’t shake off the feeling that something is wrong, it’s too quiet.

A door sliding open gets the attention of all three paladins. A person wearing one of the glowing Druid masks runs in, but stops upon seeing the intruders. However, unlike their other encounters with druids, this one does not immediately attack.

“You must leave this place at once,” the Druid yells, the voice distinctly feminine. The tone is urgent, but Keith does not take his eyes off of her, nor lowers his sword. Though he is forced to change is attention, when it sounds like one of the walls explodes, only for several Droids to come bursting into the room they were located in.

“Shit, it’s those heavy armored droids. Hunk, Pidge, we have to leave, now!” Keith mentally calls for his Lion.

“Guys, we have company outside,” Lance calls through the comms. Several Galra ships had warped in almost as soon as the droids had appeared, leaving him and Shiro busy trying to keep the space around the facility open for the others to get out.

“I thought you said there was little activity,” Hunk yells over comms. Coran doesn’t have much of answer, as there wasn’t much activity. The droids didn’t activate until recently, and the ships had not been in scanner range until then, either.

“Goddammit, this was a trap. They must have planted the data about this facility to lure us here,” Pidge lets out a few more curses under her breathe while trying to get all of her equipment into her bag. Keith is taking out as many droids as he can while Hunk covers her. What isn’t expected is for the Druid who had startled them in the first place to fire several bolts at the droids. It catches Keith off guard, leaving him more stunned when his lion crashes through the roof of the facility to get to him. While his lion landing does take out several droids, it also causes the roof to collapse, and a large piece ends up falling on Pidge, pinning her leg down. Hunk quickly removes it, but it’s obvious Pidge’s leg is broken. Hunk attempts to move her, but the unstable building starts to collapse more, and a large piece falls towards them. Hunk instinctively covers Pidge with his body, but the debris never comes. The debris hovers above them, with a purple glow around them, the druid holding her hand out, before whipping it towards the droids, taking out several with it. The druid approaches Hunk and Pidge, and points to Pidge’s leg before her hands start to glow. Hunk points his bayard at the druid, and the druid puts up her hands near her head in surrender.

“I can help if you let me,” the druid says. Hunk is unsure, and looks at Pidge. Pidge nods, and Hunk moves out of the way. The druid steps closer and places their hands on Pidge’s injured leg. A purple glow envelops the area, before a loud snap is audible. Pidge shouts, and that puts Hunk on edge, but Pidge put her hand up to stop him from reacting, before standing up. Her leg is no longer broken.

However, the Druid’s actions have now made it clear to the droids that she is not on their side, and attack is diverted towards her. She deflects several blasts towards her, but newly arriving droids have flanked her, and having been distracted from helping the Paladins, she is shot from the side. The force causes her body to be thrown towards Keith, who was in the process of getting into his lion. Having seen the druid help his teammates, he curses under his breath, before picking up the druid and pulling her into his lion. He’s not even entirely sure why he is saving her, but he has other things to deal with than think about that, and proceeds to distract the droids for Hunk and Pidge to call their lions to get out. On the outside, Lance and Shiro have taken out 3 out of 5 of the warships, and with all five lions now together, they make quick work of the last two.

“Hey, Allura. I’ll be bringing an extra on board,” Keith says into comms as they lions are making their way back into the castle.

“An extra?”

“Yeah, I grabbed the druid we encountered in the facility. I don’t know why, but they warned us about the attack, and helped defend us.”

“They also healed my leg,” Pidge chimes in as well.

“At any rate, they need a healing pod, they took a bad shot before we were able to get out.”

“All right, bring them to the medbay once you are in,” Allura says before leaving comm. Once inside, Keith makes it halfway to the medbay before running into the others. Shiro takes over carrying the Druid, as she is heavier than she looks, and it was obvious that Keith was struggling to carry her on his back. Allura and Coran are waiting in the medbay.

“Well, hopefully this won’t be like the last time we had Galra in the castle,” Coran says as Shiro lays the druid on an examination table. The blast that knocked her unconscious has charred part of the cloak she is wearing, and the mask is damaged. There is a large burn on the side of her chest. When the mask and cloak are pulled off of the druid, there is visible shock on Shiro’s face. Before anyone can question what is wrong, he voices the answer.

“Wait...I know her.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> welcome to my wild ride
> 
> an attempt will be made to include the whole main cast as much as I can, but that might be hard, depending on what direction this work goes in.


	2. a cluster of cells

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro spent way too much time staring at the ceiling

Shiro lays in his new cell, staring at the purple lights on the ceiling. He can’t sleep, and hasn’t been able to get much sleep since he lost his right arm what he thinks was a few weeks ago. Fighting in the gladiator battles with an arm missing has been the most challenging of his time there, and he had several fresh wounds to show for it, including a deep gash across his nose that has not properly healed.

He had no idea why he was taken to this new area, he had been knocked unconscious before being transported. All he could tell is that this cell was nicer than the one he had before, and there were not nearly as many cells, so he didn’t think he was in the fighting pits anymore. The sound of doors opening breaks him from his thoughts, and looking out of his cell, he sees three Galra in cloaks as well as two guards. The inner door opens, and the five enter the cell.

“So, you are the infamous ‘Champion’?” one of the cloaked Galra says, while looking him over. She grins at him. Shiro really doesn’t like that grin. “It seems Zarkon has taken a liking to you, thus we are to ‘fix’ you.” The cloaked woman is closer now, and grabs at his face. Shiro wants to knock her hand away, but he knows that the guards will subdue him if he makes any motion against them, so he simply glares. “Of course, I get to have my own fun in the process.” She then turns to the other cloaked Galra. “Viira, deal with the wounds on The Champion, I don’t want him ill before we start. Korv, measure what is left of his arm.”

One of the Galra moves forward, and grabs at the bit of his missing arm. Shiro flinches back at the action, but the Galra doesn’t react other than placing some device on his arm. He can feel it heat up, but it is done in a second or so, and the Galra gets up to follow the other Galra and one of the guard, leaving one cloaked Galra and one guard in the cell. Shiro assumes this is the one called “Viira”.

“You may wait outside while I tend to him,” Viira says to the guard. The guard nods, and exits. Shiro feels Viira’s eyes on him, but doesn’t bother to look towards her, until he sees a purple glow in his peripheral vision. This causes him to flinch, and curl away. Viira backs off, which surprises him, and has her hands up near her face. “I will not approach unless you wish me to, but I can heal your open wounds. The one across your face needs attending the most, so if you do not wish me to touch the rest of your wounds, at least allow me to heal that one.”

Shiro is completely caught off guard by Viira’s behavior. Most of the Galra he has encountered have not given any care to his personal space, and he had gotten used to that. But here he is, with a Galra asking for his permission to heal him. Shiro nods, and moves to sit on the edge of his bed. Viira’s hand moves forward, and she places two fingers just below the wound. Purple light fills his vision, and then he feels the cartilage in his nose shift back into place before feeling his sinus open again. The feeling causes him to reel backwards, away from Viira’s fingers, but it seems her work is done, and retracts her hand.

“I cannot believe they let that wound sit as long as it did,” Viira says while looking over Shiro’s face. “There will still be a scar.” Shiro just thinks it will match the rest of them, but says nothing. “May I look at the rest of your wounds?” Shiro just nods, but Viira does not move closer to him. He then realizes she does not know what nodding means.

“Yes.” Viira moves closer, and removes the outer shirt all Galran prisoners wear, before pulling back the clothing covering his torso. Shiro feels extremely uncomfortable, but holds it back from showing. Viira’s touch is gentle, however, and the feeling of not having open wounds begins to override the uncomfortable feeling. She finishes soon enough, and pulls the cloth back up, allowing him to put the overshirt back on.

“Are there any wounds I have missed?” Shiro nods again without thinking, before saying “yes”, and showing her the wound on the back of his right leg. It is quickly healed. Viira gets up to leave, but before she goes, she seems to do a slight bow, lowering her head towards Shiro, and then exits the cell. Shiro can’t help but think back to Earth, and his family. He wonders if that action has similar meaning as it does to him.

~o~o~

Shiro lays in his cell, unable to sleep again, not just because of the pain in his right arm, newly refitting with a robotic one. He cannot get the image of seeing his right arm flayed open as they attach machinery to his nerves. He did not feel anything during the procedure, in fact he could barely even move, being restrained, but the druids did not knock him unconscious for the procedure. His new arm is light, lighter than his left arm, but he no longer feels unbalanced.

Shiro feels like he would have gone insane during said procedure if not for Viira having been the one assigned to monitor his condition. All of the druids were wearing masks, but he could tell it was her from her touch. She was maintaining the spell that kept him from having feeling near his right arm, but the feeling of her hands on his left arm was calming. It made him think of his mother.

Footsteps bring Shiro out of his thoughts, and the sound of the outer cell door opening. The other door opens for Viira to walk in.

“How are you feeling, Champion?”

“Sore.”

“I imagine. It will take a bit for your body to get used to your new appendage.” Viira reaches down to check on the skin healing around the metallic arm. “Mistress Haggor is going to be having you run tests on the arm tomorrow. I suggest doing as she says, her temper can be bad.” Shiro nods to her, and he can see a slight smile on Viira’s face. She quickly learned what the nod means from her visits to check on him. She applies magic to it, relieving some of the pain. Viira looks back up from Shiro’s arm, to his face, and he sees her head tilt before she speaks again. “What is your actual name?”

“Shiro,” he says without much thought. He can feel himself beginning to trust this woman, and that scares him, because in the back of his mind, he screams that he shouldn’t trust any of the Galra. His trust could be used against him.

“Very well, Shiro,” the way she says his name is off in his ear, like it’s said with an ‘e’ instead of an ‘i’, “ I have another question for you. Your home planet, it’s called ‘Earth’, correct?” Shiro’s eyes widen in shock, and he immediately sits up.

“Yes, it is. Why? Has something happened? Has it been invaded? Destroyed?” Viira shakes her head, something Shiro found odd that both their cultures give a negative meaning to.

“No, Earth is still safe. I was merely wondering, as it’s not uncommon for races from different planets to look similar to other. One more question, have you heard of ‘Voltron’ before being captured?”

Shiro shakes his head. The first time he heard of Voltron was when he was first captured, and he still did not know what it was. He assumed a weapon of some sort. He’s not sure he wants to know.

“I see,” there is a frown on Viira’s face. “Thank you for answering my questions.” Viira gets up to leave, but not before Shiro speaks up.

“Hey, I have a question for you.”

“Very well. What is it?”

“Why are you being so nice to me? None of the other Galra have treated me as anything other than a prisoner, or an animal. You actually treat me like…”

“A person?”

“Yes.”

“Mistress Haggor would call it one of my weaknesses, but it’s made me quite good at healing.” Viira looks as if she is going to say something else, but she is silent. “Well, good night Shiro. I hope you get some sleep.” And she leaves. Shiro lays back down on his bed, and wonders what else she was going to say.

~o~o~

Shiro lays in his cell, sore from the beating he had gotten. After what must have been a few months back in the gladiator pits, he tried escaping. The metal arm gave him an advantage, and he made it as far as the ship hangar, but ran into a dead end there, as he could not get a ship to operate for him.

He found himself missing the Druids’ cells, because in the very least Viira would come to see him. She would have tended to his wounds. But Shiro had resigned himself to never seeing her again. He rolls over, attempting to sleep somewhat, but then suddenly, everything feels off. There are no noises around him at all, no hums of motors in the background. It is literally dead silent. He gets up, and looks out the window to his cell, and cannot see anything out in the hallway. There are no lights. He wonders what could be going on. A power outage? That sounds like a terrible thing to have happen when you out in space. But then, he notices a small light source. The light comes closer to the cell, and then the doors open. He is greeted by the sight of a druid. Out of habit, he assumes fighting stance.

“Shiro, hold. It’s Viira,” she says as she lifts her mask.

“What? What are you doing here? What is happening?”

“I don’t have time to explain, the spell I have up will only hold for another fifteen clicks. Go to the ship hangar, there will be a small craft in the rightmost bay. Take it, I programmed it to warp to Earth.” Shiro can only look at her with a confused expression. What is going on? Viira grabs him by his living arm, and drags him down the hallway towards the hangar.

“What is going on? Why are you helping me escape?”

“I told you, we don’t have much time. But I will give you the main details you need to know. There is a piece of Voltron on Earth. You need to warn your people, Zarkon is going to order a search of the planet soon.”

“What?” Shiro is very confused, and is not sure how to respond. “Why are you telling me this?”

“Because Zarkon has to be stopped!” Viira has very noticeable anger in her voice. They reach the fork in the hallway that leads to the ship hangar. Viira grabs Shiro’s metal arm, grabbing the palm and pressing into it. A holo screen appears, and she seems to type into it. “There, you will be able to interface with Galra tech. Now go!” Viira pushes Shiro towards the hangar, before disappearing down the other path. Shiro is still confused, but proceeds towards the hangar. The ship Viira said would be there is indeed there, and he is able to operate it. The ship automatically leaves the hangar without instruction from Shiro, and soon he is warped back to Earth. He never thought he would get to see it again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> someone take care of Shiro, please
> 
> He deserves so much after the shit he's gone through


	3. instinct and trust

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> keith feels like the odd man out

“Wait, so she helped you escape from the Galran prisons?” Hunk asks as they watch Viira in the healing pod.

“Yes. Maybe now I can find out why she helped me.”

“Maybe she’s part of a resistance movement. Would explain why she warned you about Voltron,” Pidge voices up.

“In any case, we must thank her when she awakens,” Allura says afterwards, “if she had not aided Shiro, this team would not have formed.”

“Yeah,” Shiro says, still looking at Viira’s sleeping body. He’d never actually gotten a good look at her, having always been in the dim lighting of Galran ships. Looking at her face, he could see visible lines, making her look something like middle aged, but he had no way of knowing what Galran lifespans are like. His mind clicks it towards being another reason why he had a ‘motherly’ feeling from her. In the very least, here was a Galran that did not conjure up negative images. The others had already left when he came out of his thoughts, except Keith, who was standing near him, still looking at the Galra in the pod.

“I don’t trust this,” Keith says when Shiro steps closer to him.

“You are the one who brought her with you.”

“I know, and I’m not really sure why. But something about her feels off to me.”

“Well, you can ask her about that off feeling once she wakes up.”

“You sure it’s a good idea to not just put her into the Cryo-pod?”

“If there is any Galra I am going to trust, it’s Viira. Also if she is part of a resistance against Zarkon, we might finally be able to get some good information.”

“Yeah, okay,” Keith says, but is still staring at the pod. Shiro doesn’t know what else to say to him, and moves to leave the medbay. Keith stares at the pod, seemingly trying to get answers to why he feels so off, but when no answers come, he leaves as well.

~o~o~

All five Paladins, Allura, and Coran are around the pod when it opens after two days. Viira slowly opens her eyes to see the people staring at her. This causes her to jolt, and she falls out of the pod.

“Where am I? Who are you? What is go-wait, Shiro?” Viira says once she had turned her head to where Shiro was standing.

“Nice to see you, too,” Shiro says back at her. Viira looks around more.

“I’m not on Earth, am I?”

“No, you are the Castle of Lions, and we are currently in Deep Space,” Allura answers Viira.

“Then why is Shiro here? The ship I gave him should have sent him straight back to Earth.”

“It did,” Keith says bluntly.

“We just ended up in space thanks to a certain idiot piloting a blue lion,” Pidge says, side glancing at Lance, who mocks an offended look.

“You found the lion? Then…” Viira trails off, seeming to think before speaking again. “I thought that was just a rumor that the Champion was one of the Paladins of Voltron…” Shiro lets out his hand to help Viira to her feet. “If I’m with the Paladins of Voltron, then you must be Princess Allura,” Viira turns to Allura, and gives a slight bow, lowering her head.

“Please, there is no need for formalities. Now, tell me, what were you doing at the Quintessence facility?”

“I went there to warn the Paladins of the trap they were stepping into,” Pidge mouths ‘I knew it’ at Hunk and Lance, “I just didn’t expect the warships to be there that quickly. Nor did I expect to be saved by you. I thank you all for that,” Viira says, again giving a slight bow to the entire group. Shiro realizes that the motion does indeed have the same meaning for her that it does for him.

“Why did you want to warn us?” Keith asks, doubt very clear in his voice.

“I am part of the internal resistance against Zarkon’s rule.”

“So there is a resistance,” Shiro says at the comment.

“Yes. Maybe not for the best of reasons, however. While I am against the treatment given to many of races, most in the resistance are against the constant wars for resources.” Viira attempts to move forwards, but stumbles, her legs apparently still being weak from stasis. Both Lance and Hunk moved to catch her from falling, to which she smiles at both of them.

“Well, perhaps it would be best to allow you to rest more before we continue this conversation,” Allura says, and has Viira follow her to one of the many spare rooms in the castle.

“She reminds me of my mom,” Lance says once Viira and Allura have left the room.

“Yeah, there is a certain ‘mom-like’ quality about her,” Hunk says, agreeing with Lance. Pidge laughs and nods as well.

“Let’s just hope she doesn’t throw shoes,” Lance says as he starts leaving the medbay.

“Why would she throw...you know what, nevermind. I don’t want to know,” Keith just says, while sighing. “Just remember, she’s still a Galra Druid, we shouldn’t be outright trusting her.”

“Yeah, yeah, but if we end up finding her cooking, I’m sorry, but I won’t be able to  _ not _ trust her.”

“What if she poisons you?”

“Then I would be extremely offended.” Shiro just shakes his head at Keith and Lance’s strange argument as he follows them out of the room.

~o~o~

“So, tell us, do you have any contacts within the Galran resistance that we can, well, contact?” Coran asks Viira, as the Voltron group is seated around her. Coran had given her a plate of the ‘food goo’, to which she had an expression similar to that the Paladins had the first time they encountered it. Though, she says nothing of her displeasure, and eats it anyway. Her face when she first eats it causes slight laughter, after which she doesn’t eat anymore.

“I have a few, but it would be hard to contact them now. A lot of the communications devices used in the military can detect non-Galran equipment, and even then the few contacts I have can be hard to reach.”

“How many do you have?” Shiro asks after. Viira seems to think, before answering.

“About three.”

“That’s...not a lot.” Allura replies.

“I am aware. But it cannot be helped, even among the Resistance, I am not very well trusted.”

“Why doesn’t the Resistance trust you?” Keith asks next, still trying to come up with a reason as to why the group should not trust her, as he does not. He is aware his feeling is slightly irrational, but there has been plenty of times that these ‘feelings’ have been right.

“Because I am a Druid,” Viira answers, but says nothing more for a moment, before seeing confused looks on the others’ faces, and continues her answer. “Emperor Zarkon has given many privileges to the Druidic Order, thus they are not trusted in general by many Garlans. Hence many in the resistance question why I would want to go against Zarkon when my position gives me a station similar to that of nobility.”

“Then why  _ are _ you in the Resistance?” Keith can feel glares from Allura and Shiro, to not be asking questions like this, but he isn’t about to stop now.

“When one has always been sensitive to the pain of others, and is then sent to heal gladiators when you are barely out of childhood, it tends to make you look at everything around you differently.” Keith regrets his question now. Though Viira suddenly smiles, and speaks up again, “I also met a lovely young man who was the one who introduced me to the resistance, so that was how I actually joined in.”

“Wait, you joined the resistance...because of a guy?” Lance asks, barely being able to hide his amusement on his face. He is then met with multiple looks of disappointment, though the most piercing one comes from Viira herself, and Lance stays quiet.

“Anyway, of the people I could contact, I don’t think we would be able to contact any of them anytime soon,” Viira thinks for a moment, “There Keirav, he is stationed on a scouting vessel, and is usually in deep space, so contacting him has always been hard. Balvok might be the easiest, being that he works in a military warehouse on Varone.”

“Oh, Varone! Do they still have the big open markets in the capitol,” Coran asks, suddenly changing the conversation.

“Hmm? Oh, yes, those are there. But going to Varone would most likely be a bad idea. It’s in the middle of Galran controlled territory, not to mention you would all stand out like a Kalvk...well, anywhere.” The five human Paladins are no doubt wondering what a Kalvk is, but Coran just nods in agreement.

“Very well, what about your third contact?”

“..Thace. I had spoken to him about ten days ago, but unless we can access Galran Military communications directly, contacting him is out of the question. He is a Lieutenant under Commander Prorog, and still stationed the Central Command.”

“Yes, I can see why contacting him would be an issue,” Coran says, stroking his mustache, seemingly thinking. Probably about acquiring Galran military communications systems. Pidge has a look of thinking as well, probably for similar reasons.

“I have a lot of Galra tech I’ve taken from Quintessence facilities, though I haven’t fully figured out what all of them are, maybe we have something you can use to contact your friends,” Hunk says next. Hunk had looked at the inner workings of most of the equipment he had acquired, but the Galra tech ran incredibly different from anything from Earth, so any insight he could be given would be welcome. Viira looks at Hunk with wide eyes.

“You have machinery from the processing facilities? That might be worrisome.” Hunk looks at Viira with a questioning face. “Some of the equipment is designed to absorb Quintessence, which anything that is alive has in some quantity. So it is not out of the question for something like that to outright kill someone.” Hunk’s face falls immediately. “I can look over the equipment you do have to try to identify them all, if you would like.” This statement brings a smile back to Hunk’s face, and he agrees to that.

“Viira, after you help Hunk with the equipment, I’d like to ask you more questions about the Galra,” Allura says afterwards, “after 10,000 years in stasis, I’m sure there is much changed about your people.” Viira nods, and then follows Hunk towards the Lion hangar he keeps all of his taken equipment in. Pidge follows as well, and down the hall it can be heard of Pidge asking if Viira knows anything about the programming of the equipment, but they are too far out of range to hear the answer. The others leave the dining room, to continue doing their normal daily routines, but Keith is still sitting there, internally questioning why everyone seems to trust this Galra woman so easily. He knows Shiro trusts her, but he spent weeks in captivity of the druids with Viira being the only person having shown him direct kindness during his stay. He knows that should be good enough, that Shiro’s judgment is usually the best, but Keith cannot shake the uneasy feeling about her.

~o~o~

The next few weeks run with a strange normality. Viira spends most of her time either helping Hunk and Pidge go through the collection of Galra tech they have amassed, as well as answering the myriad of questions about the Galra Empire that Allura, Coran, and Shiro have. At one point, Lance actually asks her if she can cook, to which she looked very confused by his question and replied that the ship doesn’t have any common Galra foods. So Lance never really got an answer to his question.

The only person to avoid interacting with her is Keith, still on edge of Viira’s presence. What sets him off the most is how much Viira is watching him. Any time he enters the room she is in, she does not take her eyes off of him. He does not know what to make of it, and thus starts actively avoiding her.

Though eventually Keith runs into Viira in the strangest of places, at least to him. It was late on the ship, and Keith was unable to sleep. The Paladins had recently come back from a mission to retrieve data from a facility Viira had given the location for. Pidge was overly excited about the amount of data she got, and was no doubt still awake, combing through it. Keith, on the other hand, was still restless from fighting, something that happened frequently, and decided to burn energy on the training droid. Not that he slept well most nights. However, when he gets to the training room, it is occupied. He enters it, expecting to see Shiro, but instead he is greeted by the sight of Viira making use of the droid. She doesn’t seem to notice his presence, so he simply watches for the moment. She is fighting with a sword, or what may be a large dagger from the way she holds it, which strikes Keith as odd as odd as they had never seen a Galra Druid use weapons other than magic. However, the blade she holds looks to be made of energy, most like conjured by magic.

Viira is clearly skilled with her blade, moving with high agility, mostly moving to avoid attacks rather than attack back. Though eventually there is an opening, and having gotten behind the droid, she slashes at the back. At this point the magic of the blade is made very apparent, and it arcs around the droid, disabling it, before dispersing.

“End Simulation,” Viira calls afterwards, and the droid disappears into the floor, no doubt to be repaired. She immediately turns to where Keith is ‘hiding’. “I am done for now.” Keith comes out from behind the wall he was behind.

“You knew I was there?”

“Of course. Your Quintessence is very distinct, as is everyone’s on this ship.”

“You can sense that?”

“Most Druids can. So keep that in mind if you ever wish to sneak up on one.” Keith’s mind flips back to the first time he snuck into a Galra facility. Viira’s head tilts at Keith, “I thought the humans were usually asleep at this time.”

“They are...err, we are, usually. I can’t sleep.”

“Very well. I assume you are going to train your combat abilities while burning off energy in hopes to sleep?” Keith nods. “May I watch?” The question causes Keith to turn to Viira.

“I’d rather you didn’t.”

“I see. Well, goodnight, then.” As Viira leaves the training room, Keith turns to make sure he is facing her at all times. Viira seems to notice this, even without looking at him. “You are very suspicious of me.”

“Of course I am!”

“I am not saying that is a bad thing. I am a Galra Druid you have only known for a short amount of time, and I could very well have hidden motives. Despite this, the rest of your team seems to trust me.”

“Because Shiro trusts you. Because you helped him escape. Because you helped us in that quintessence factory. There is plenty of reasons why everyone trusts you, and I’m not even sure why I  _ don’t. _ ” Keith is getting frustrated with himself. Saying all these things out loud makes him realize even more how irrational his mistrust of her is, but the uneasy feeling is still there.

“As I said, that is not a bad thing. You have every right to be wary of me. I am merely trying to say that I do not resent for feeling that way.” Viira pauses, like she was going to say more, “Well, I hope you manage to get some sleep.” With that, Viira leaves. Keith’s feeling of uneasiness gets worse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> connecting the dots should be fairly easy to figure out where this is going
> 
> then again, I may not be able to judge the "easiness" of connecting said dots, so who knows
> 
> small references to the apparent nationalities of the paladins will come as I please


	4. a garden of vines and thorns

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> keith seems to be fond of people who fight with him

Keith ends up going to the training room more nights, half as a better way to spend time than sitting in bed for several hours before actually falling asleep, and half to watch Viira fight. He will admit, she is good, and he is learning from watching her. At first he stays hidden behind a wall, but eventually Viira says to him there is no point in him hiding, so he actually sits along the wall.

At first, Viira simply continues training routines as if Keith wasn’t watching. This is when Keith realizes just how odd Galra look to him. While Viira has a very distinctly feminine voice, appearance wise, she is not that much different from any other Galra they had met, which he assumes were mostly male. The only really differing features being larger eyes and long, dark purple hair kept in a braid. There are streaks of white throughout Viira’s braid, so Keith assumes Viira is...older? Eventually, Viira asks Keith if he would want to spar with her instead of merely sitting there waiting for her to be finished.

“Uhh...I guess. Might not be that much of a challenge, though.” Viira sets the Droid’s training level much higher than Keith has ever dared to. Not to mention the magic sword that turns into lightning. Viira is going through what looks to be a storage compartment of some sort, and pulls out two swords, throwing one to Keith near his feet. He picks it up. It seems to be made of something similar to plastic, the sword being rigid but not sharp.

“I found these earlier, and I will not use magic, so it will be more evened out than you think.” Both of them take stance, each other’s stances being incredibly different, Viira holding her blade behind her, and Keith aiming his towards his opponent. They circle each other, and Keith charges forward, aiming for the side Viira does not hold her sword on. Viira is quick, however, and blocks him, before forcing him back. Keith’s attacks come regularly, and Viira does not actively attack back. Every time he thinks he found an opening, he is immediately blocked, and it begins to frustrate him, and he ends up charging in without looking for an opening. Viira does not block him this time, but grabs his arm with her free hand, and twists it which causes him to drop his sword.

“You don’t pull your punches, do you?” Keith says, rubbing his arm where she had grabbed him.

“We are fighting with blades, not fists.” Viira looks at him with a questioning look. Keith stares for a moment before laughing. Viira looks more confused.

“I meant you aren’t going easy on me.”

“Of course not, you won’t learn if I hold back too much.” Viira picks up Keith’s dropped sword, and hands it back to him. “You fight like a Galra soldier.” Her words cause him to flinch. Viira seems to realize that her words bothered him. “Does me saying that offend you? I only meant you fight with minimal regard for yourself.”

“When I fought Zarkon, he said I fought like a Galra soldier. I don’t particularly enjoy being compared to the people we are fighting against.” Viira doesn’t respond to that.

“Well, in terms of your own skill, you are fast, and you have strength, but you lack patience.” Keith grimaces, as Shiro had said something similar to him. “And you do not have enough strength to simply overpower an opponent. Waiting for an opening is good, but the best opening is when your opponent is attacking, and using their own momentum against them. Disarm them, either by making them drop their weapon or by removing their arm.” The last words cause Keith to look at Viira in alarm. Viira raises an eyebrow in question.

“You’re actually telling me to cut off someone’s arm?”

“Why not? It is effective.” Keith’s face is a mixture of confusion and horror, but doesn’t comment further. They take stance again. Keith tries to remain calm, but Viira does not give up openings easily, which only causes him to become frustrated again.

“How am I supposed to disarm you if I can’t even get in a hit?”

“You have to figure out how to force me to attack.” Easier said than done. Viira will attack back if Keith attacks, but Viira repeatedly wins in this situation. Attempting to give a false opening on himself proves to be futile as well, as Viira can see through it. Eventually, Keith throws his sword at the wall in frustration.

“This is stupid, I’m going to bed.”

“Very well. Good night. I will be here the same time tomorrow.” Keith isn’t sure he’s willing to take up the offer of fighting her again, but finds himself at the training room the next night regardless.

This goes on for several nights. When Keith manages to keep his temper down, and stay calm, he makes progress. But, continuously Viira shows that while she isn’t going overly easy on him, she is still holding back, and shuts him down. While this brings out his anger, it also forces him to rethink his strategy against her constantly, which in the end is probably her plan.

This all culminates in Keith finally getting a solid hit in, a sharp strike to Viira’s sword arm, which causes her to drop her weapon. What Keith did not expect was for Viira to immediately force him back with magic. The force hits him in the stomach, which knocks him back several feet and winds him. Viira looks horrified at what she did, however, and immediately rushes to him.

“Forgive me, I did not mean to do that. I forced you back out of reflex.” Viira places a hand to Keith’s chest, and Keith suddenly is forced to take in a large breath of air. But afterwards, he is able to breathe normally. “You did well, though. You have improved quite quickly.”

“Thanks,” Keith says while still wincing. “Though I don’t know how good this will all be if I end up fighting a Druid that isn’t you.”

“I would suggest avoiding fighting Druids, you are probably the least equipped to do so.”

“Thanks,” Keith says, sarcasm heavy in his voice.

“There is no need to take it personally. Fighting a Druid at close quarters is a very bad idea. Pulse weapons are much more effective against us, so Lance or Hunk would be better choices. You, however, would fair well against the Drones, are they are not built to be withstanding a physical weapon hitting them. They are built to withstand gunfire.”

“Yeah, I’ve noticed that by now. Unless it’s those armored ones, then I’m fucked.” Viira raises an eyebrow at Keith’s last word, but says nothing about it.

“Aim for joints, those are not reinforced as much to allow for movement.” Keith nods, and gets up to grab the sword he dropped. “I believe we have done enough for tonight.” Keith is actually disappointed at her words, it hasn’t been nearly as long as the other nights, and he had finally made progress against her. But, he figures she is worried over having hurt him. He moves to leave the training room, but stops, remembering something that he wanted an answer to.

“Hey, I see you talking with Shiro a lot. Like, way more than with Allura or Coran. Is he asking you about what was still happening at the prisons or something?”

“Hmm? Well, no, if he was I wouldn’t be able to give him much of an answer, as I have very rarely went near the prisons or fighting pits in the last few years. Also it would be more correct to say that I am the one talking to him.”

“About what?” Viira tilts her head, seemingly trying to think.

“Anything I can think of. I’ve asked him plenty of things about Earth, about what he was doing before he was captured by the Galra, of his family…”

“Why are you asking him about that?” Keith wonder if she had been asking the others about their lives as well. He doesn’t like the disappointed feeling he gets when thinking that she never asked anything like that of him.

“Shiro is a man who had to go through a lot of pain while in the fighting pits. And I can sense it strongly in his energy. Some mornings it’s like a shroud over him. I am attempting to help him.” Keith stares at Viira in shock. Now he wonder just how much Shiro went through while he was captured. He knows Shiro sometimes freezes up in combat, but if he is regularly affected by memories of his captivity, he hides it well..

“I...see.” He doesn’t know what else to say.

“If you wish to help him as well, perhaps on days where Shiro seems a bit tired, you would do well to ignore Lance when he goads you.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Keith grimaces. “Though maybe we should tell Lance that, because he really does not know when to quit.” Viira laughs.

“He’s trying to get your attention.”

“Maybe he should try not making everything into a competition. That might work out better for him.” Viira laughs more. Keith sighs, before leaving the training room to go to bed.

~o~o~

“Okay, so we are going to be doing something different today,” Shiro says to the other Paladins during their bi-weekly group training. A very loud sigh can be heard from Lance, which everyone ignores. Allura and Coran can be seen from the upper control room, so they hope it’s not the maze again, though that wouldn’t be “different”.

When Viira walks into the room, Keith immediately freezes up. She is wearing a cloak, and has her repaired mask on her head. Oh no oh no oh no oh no-

“As we have been running into more Druids when hitting the Quintessence facilities,” Lance coughs and it sounds vaguely like ‘sporks’. Hunk groans. “I thought it would be good to train against one. And Viira graciously agreed to help.”

“I am still partly against this idea, but Shiro made his point well,” Viira says, now standing next to Shiro with her arms crossed. By now Lance has noticed Keith’s expression, and asks under his breath what’s wrong. Keith doesn’t answer. He’ll find out soon enough.

“I asked her not to go easy on us, we have to learn to deal with Druids better before one of us gets taken out.”

“I will only use force spells for attacking, which are non-lethal.”

“They just hurt like a bitch,” Keith says under his breath.

“Obviously we’ll be using training weapons for this against Viira, but anything up until ‘badly injuring’ is fair game.”

“I honestly wouldn’t have minded if you all used your bayards, but we’ll go with what Shiro wants,” Viira pulls the mask over her face, and the words ‘for now’ can be faintly heard. Lance is still trying to figure out what is wrong with Keith.

“Yo, are you scared of fighting Viira or something?” Keith only glares at Lance, but does not answer the question. Lance turns to Hunk and Pidge and shrugs, to which the other two shrug back.

There is a large circle in the training room, and Shiro walks to the center of it.

“So, how this will work is the objective is to stay in this circle. If Viira knocks you out, you are done. How did we agree this would go, again, Viira?”

“If one of you manages to stay in the circle for ten clicks, then training gets called off early. Until then, we keep going. So, yes, even Shiro will suffer through this.”

“Don’t say it like that.”

“What if one of us manages to knock you out of the circle?” Pidge asks. Viira tilts her head, and Shiro just gives a sheepish grin.

“We’ll figure something out if that happens.” All four younger Paladins gain a look of varying degrees of fear.

“Good luck Paladins!” Coran’s voice can be heard over the speaker, “You’re definitely going to need it.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Lance replies back, and Coran can be seen giving them all a thumbs up from the window. The Paladins take their place near the center of the circle. Lance and Hunk have light pulse guns in place of their bayards, and Keith has the training sword. Pidge has her actual bayard as it is the least lethal of them all. Viira steps back to near the north edge, in front of the Paladins, facing them. With her cloak and glowing mask, she looks quite intimidating, making it harder to equate the Druid in front of them with the Galra woman they had become friends with over the last few weeks. This is probably be design.

“I’ll have the timer count down, when the long beep happens, you start. I’ll give you ten ticks,” Allura says over the speaker. When the first beep comes, Keith puts up his shield. Shiro also puts his up, and the other follow suit, figuring someone knows something they don’t. The final beep comes, and Viira disappears from view.

“What the he-” is all Lance can say before he is abruptly knocked forward. Keith had already turned around, expecting this to happen from his first battle with a Druid, so he saw Viira before she hit Lance, the hit simply came too quick to warn him. Lance gets up, having not been knocked out. He wasn’t the only one to get hit. Hunk gets hit from his side, throwing him into Pidge, and almost squishes her, but Pidge manages out of the way before he falls on her. Shiro is able to block a blast, but it knocks him back a good foot. Keith continues constantly checking behind him, but does not expect Viira to appear right in front of him, and knock him back almost point blank. He did have his shield up, which absorbed some of the force, and manages to stop himself before he is knocked out. This is going to be a long ten minutes.

The Paladins fall back into a circle, like they did for the blocking training exercise, to watch each other’s backs, but Viira follow strongly the ‘anything is fair game’ rule, and starts aiming for legs with magic that looks like a rope. Shiro is the first to be grabbed, and she pulls hard before disappearing again before Lance and Hunk can get in a shot. Shiro has to use his robotic hand to actually grab into the floor to stop from sliding out. Pidge is the next one grabbed, but Hunk grabs on Pidge before she can be pulled out. Lance and Keith are standing with their backs to each other now, rapidly looking around for where Viira will appear next.

“I feel like you were expecting this,” Lance remarks to Keith.

“Shut up and focus,” Keith spits back, before Viira appears beside them. Keith gets his shield in the way first, but is knocked back into Lance causing both of them to fall over. Lance is the next one grabbed by the rope. Keith manages to grab Lance before he is pulled out of reach, but the force pulling him is stronger than he expected, and is pulled forward as well. Lance fires at Viira which causes her to disappear again, which saves both of them from being pulled. Keith is grabbed now, and finds out that his sword will cut through the energy rope, so he manages to free himself quickly. That lets Shiro and Pidge know that they can probably cut through it as well.

Unfortunately, Viira seems to be accounting for them expecting certain attacks, and switches to point blank attacks. Shiro is attacked immediately, a point blank attack aimed for his chest. He does manage to block it, but he is knocked back, and Viira then uses the opportunity to grab him with multiple ropes. Shiro only manages to cut three of the four binding him before he is pulled out.

“And Shiro’s the first eliminated. Who would have guessed?” Coran says over the speaker.

“Well I did tell her not to go easy on us,” Shiro laughs out before coughing. Viira’s attack clearly winded him, and now he sits on the sideline holding his chest watching the younger Paladins. Shiro being taken out first causes them to stop in shock, which proves to be a bad decision, as several blasts are sent towards them. Hunk manages to block them, and is able to get good enough footing to not be sent backwards into his teammates.

“How the fuck are we supposed to defend against someone who can fucking teleport?” Lance yells while trying to fire at where Viira was, but she had already disappeared.

“I’m pretty sure that’s what we’re supposed to figure out,” Pidge yells back.

“Hey, stop it. If we start fighting with each other, we’re doomed,” Hunk says next. Keith doesn’t comment, he is too busy trying to figure out where Viira will appear next. He is catching glimpses of her every couple seconds, so he figures she must be teleporting around quickly to appear invisible. Pidge has noticed this as well.

“Guys, when she’s about to attack, she has to stay visible for a second, if we are going to attack back, we have to use that as an opening.”

“Easier said than don-” Lance is cut off as he is grabbed by the rope. Pidge uses her bayard to throw Lance a line, and both her and Hunk pull Lance back to them. Viira uses this as an opening, and Hunk finds himself with a hard hit to his side. He tries to get footing as he is forced back, but only stops once he is just out of the boundaries.

“And then there were three,” Pidge says.

“Tough luck, Hunk,” Coran says to Hunk as he moves to sit next to Shiro.

“Paladins, one click has passed. Nine more to go,” Allura says afterwards.

“Goddammit.”

The three remaining Paladins stand with their backs to each other in a triangle, trying to keep look out for when Viira will attack next. She seems to be switching back to force blasts, and the three manage to absorb most of the force with their shields while using each other to keep from being pushed back. Lance is grabbed again, but Keith cuts the rope quickly before he can be pulled. Viira is no longer teleporting around, and is now standing in one place near the edge of the ring. Lance immediately shoots at her. Keith curses immediately, knowing how Viira usually fights. She does dash forward, seemingly to blast Lance back in the opening, but Keith predicts it and manages to block her. Lance looks at Keith in shock that he was able to predict that, but Keith is not paying attention to that, and is focusing on where Viira is now. She’s mostly running now, she’s still fast, but they can at least see her.

Pidge uses her bayard’s rope to try to get it around Viira’s legs, trying to use Viira’s technique against her. It hits it’s mark, but Viira’s cloak keeps it from being able to wrap around, and she grabs the rope and pulls. Pidge holds onto her bayard for a moment, which causes her to be pulled forward. Lance and Keith both grab her, and she lets go of her bayard, which is now thrown out of the ring.

“Great.”

“Pidge, you are right about waiting for her to attack before finding an opening,” Keith says. Lance and Keith are now on either side of Pidge, essentially shielding her. “She does the same to her opponents, she will overpower them once they attack.”

“How do you know this?” Lance asks, scanning the area in front of him.

“Because I’ve been sparring against her for the last we-” Keith is cut off when Viira appears in front of him again. He blocks, and is pushed back into Lance, squishing Pidge between them. Lance fires, and Viira disappears.

“Lance, behind you!” Keith yells. Lance whips around, and fires without really thinking, and Viira narrowly misses the shot.

“Nice.” Lance says in his excitement. Keith is mildly confused at himself. The similar uneasy feeling he usually feels around Viira was almost directional. But that makes no sense to him.

“Lance, I’m gonna need you to trust me here.” Keith backs up with his shield up, and grabs Lance’s arm. He tries to focus on what he can sense, and as soon as he senses Viira to have stopped, he pulls Lance to aim at her. Lance seems startled, but fires immediately, and this time actually connects with Viira’s shoulder.

“Whoa,” is all Lance says to that, and Keith is partially shocked himself.

“Nice shot,” says Pidge. Viira is stopped now and simply looks at her shoulder, or what they assume is her looking at her shoulder, as they can’t see her face. Lance and Keith’s shock that they were able to hit her is short lived and Viira sweeps her arm towards them, sending a shockwave. Pidge is able to duck out of it, but Lance and Keith are hit full on and knocked out of the ring. With Pidge being the last one left and without her Bayard, she is soon caught by the ropes and pulled out.

“And with that, we come to the two click mark,” Allura says over the speaker.

“I’m surprised you lasted as long as you did!” is what Coran says afterwards.

“I agree, you actually did quite well.” Viira pushes her mask to sit on the top of her head. She’s breathing as hard as the Paladins, thus she clearly was exerting herself as well.

“No fair, I hit you!” Lance yells, him and Keith having joined with Shiro, Hunk, and Pidge.

“You hit my shoulder. Perhaps you would have done better if you had thought to fire your weapon again,” Viira says bluntly. Lance mutter something under his breath, but no one hears it. He turns to Keith.

“By the way, how did you do that?”

“Do what?”

“Know where Viira was going to be before she got there.”

“I don’t know, I could just tell.” Lance just stares at Keith with a questioning look. Viira looks at Keith with a similar look.

“Perhaps you are sensitive to living Quintessence. It’s not terribly uncommon, even if you have no ability in manipulating it,” Viira explains.

“Huh. I guess that would explain why I was able to find the Blue Lion.” Keith seems to be thinking that over, and while he does Shiro addresses the other Paladins.

“Well, I guess we will take a quick break and then resume practice.” He turns to Viira. “I see you took me asking you not to go easy on us to heart.”

“Of course. Though, I suppose I benefit from having some insight into how you all fight already. It’s why I took you out first, as you direct the others. Hunk was the second target as he has the strength to block attacks.”

“I see. Well, thank you for the insight. I suppose I’m going to have to watch my back a little better,” Shiro says, before laughing self-deprecatingly.

“Or have the others watch it for you better. Now, I am going to go acquire water and sit down, using that much magic is tiring.” Viira does her slight bow, and leaves to go get water. 

The break allows the Paladins to attempt to strategize against Viira, which ended up hinging on Keith being able to tell where she was at any given point. The rest of the day had varying degrees of success. Shiro and Hunk were still frequently the first ones taken out because they would be protecting Lance, Keith, and Pidge from attacks. Lance and Keith were able to work together for the most part, although by the end Lance started getting tired of Keith pulling him around and they devolved into arguing. Pidge continuously adapted strategy when Viira changed up attack patterns and types of spells. Keith did warn that at one point about Viira holding back ability until her opponent starts to adapt to it, and then holding back less. The longest they managed to last was 8 minutes, and it was by far their best run. All five of them were in the circle, but did not expect Viira herself to get frustrated and just charge full blast at them. They decided to end training after that.

Viira apologized profusely for outbursting like that, but Shiro played it off as another thing they would have to get around when fighting other druids. Viira saw his point, but was still ashamed at herself for attacking the Paladins out of anger.

The Paladins end up going to bed early after the training session, though Keith finds himself wandering the castle, being in his usual state of restlessness. He finds Viira in the observation deck.

“Hey,” Keith calls out to her. She turns to him.

“Oh hello, Keith.” Keith goes to sit next to her. “I apologize again for how the training ended.”

“Enough of that. Everyone keeps telling you it’s fine.”

“I am aware. I just do not like it when I let my anger get the best of me.”

“I understand that. I understand that very well. So, really, it’s no big deal.” Keith and Viira sit watching the space outside of the castle in silence for several minutes before Viira speaks up.

“You all did well, none the less. I am glad that you and Lance were able to cooperate like that.”

“Heh. When we are actually focused, we can work together just fine.” Keith then grimaces. “Then Lance has to go and ruin it with something.”

“You two expend far too much energy pretending you hate each other.”

“I don’t pretend to hate him, he just keeps trying to get me to fight with him.”

“I believe I mentioned before that he is trying to get your attention.”

“I am aware. Why he wants my negative attention, I will never know.” Viira laughs, much like the first time they had this conversation, and rubs her hand through Keith’s hair. “Hey.”

“Oh, sorry.” Viira has a very thoughtful expression on her face. “That is a common gesture for Galra. A sign of affection between, say, a mentor and their student. Or...uh...family members.”

“Humans do that, too. But, uh, thanks?” Keith isn’t really sure how to respond. Does Viira think of him almost like he’s her son? He doesn’t find himself minding, however, having been shuffled between foster homes frequently due to his attitude issues, never having much of a parental figure in his like. Shiro is someone he almost considers family, but he’s more of an older brother. Viira starts asking Keith about his life on Earth, which Keith isn’t really sure how to answer, trying his best to explain his fostering situation, how he met Shiro, his time at the Galaxy Garrison, and the time he spent in the desert looking for the Blue Lion. Keith doesn’t think he’s ever talked about himself this much before, but Viira seems to listen intently. Though once he lets out a very big yawn, she forces him to go to bed.

Keith doesn’t associate the feeling he gets from Viira with mistrust anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> writing fights is hard. there is also going to be a lot of keith. new tags will come into effect soon(tm)


	5. consume and destroy and renew

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> a realization of how high the galran energy consumption really is

Coran picks up a distress signal from a small ship within the star system they are in. When they find it, the ship is almost without life support, and if the Paladins hadn’t gotten there when they had, all the people on board would have died.

Once all of the people are on the castleship, and their conditions are checked, they explain their situation. The planet they had been inhabiting was now no longer inhabitable, thanks to the Galra. Their people had been controlled by the Galra for centuries, and then a large Galra warship was detected in orbit, they didn’t think much of it. What they did not expect was for the ship to literally suck every bit of green from their planet. The planet could no longer support life, and seemed to strip the atmosphere from the planet. Those still on the planet didn’t fair well for long. They had only gotten out because they happened to be in space at the time.

Pidge had read about the Quintessence draining experiments in the files she had gotten from various facilities, and Viira knew of it to an extent, but didn’t realize it had already been perfected for draining an entire planet of it’s energy.

“We have to stop that ship, before it drains that world,” Allura says to the Paladins. The refugees gave them the general location it should be in, and it was picked up on sensors. It was currently on route to another planet.

“I mean, I’m all for destroying Galran warships, but didn’t those guys say the ship was a size comparable to a moon? How are we going to destroy that? I doubt it’s built like the goddamn Deathstar!” Lance yells. Pidge and Hunk laugh at the last thing he says. Allura and Coran question what a Deathstar is (Pidge explains, however. “Why would you build an installation with such an obvious weak point?” “Because plot.”), and Lance is very disappointed in Keith for not knowing Star Wars references (“I’m sorry I don’t understand your 20th century media references.” “Excuse me, Star Wars is a classic.”).

“Destroying the ship would probably be a poor idea, as well.” Viira says. “Raw Quintessence can be volatile, and an amount equal to the energy output of an entire planet being set off would cause a massive explosion. If it’s too close to an inhabited planet when it goes off, it could very well act like a massive coronal ejection and strip the atmosphere from said planet.” Everyone grimaces at that last sentence.

“So what do we do? If we can’t attack it where it is, we gotta get it to move somewhere else, right?” Hunk asks. “Do you think engaging it would make it follow us?”

“Most likely not, I doubt that ship is built for offensive combat.” That’s one idea out.

“The only thing I can think of is hijacking the ship and forcing it to warp somewhere else.” Pidge suggests.

“That sounds incredibly dangerous,” Shiro says. “But, it would probably be our best chance at battling it without harming the surrounding area.”

“So, how do you suggest we accomplish this?” Coran asks.

“Well, we’re going to have to distract the fighters they are going to send after us long enough for someone to get in. Also, Viira is probably going to have to be on the infiltration team.” Pidge starts outlining a plan.

“What, why?” Keith asks.

“Because she’s the only one here who knows how to operate Galran spacecraft. I could probably get into the system and figure out controls, but that would requiring being in said control room, and would take too much time. And Viira can actually read Galran script without translation.” Pidge says bluntly. “Okay, so the best bet would be Shiro, Hunk, and I staying outside to distract the fighters, as we have the most defense capable Lions. Viira will go, and as well as Lance and Keith to fight off the large amount of drones that are no doubt going to be crawling the place. Viira sets coordinates for the ship to warp to, and then we follow in the castle. At that point we can form Voltron and take out the ship.”

“There will most likely be several druids on board as well,” Viira adds. “Any Quintessence draining operation that has ever been close to this scale has required an active druid to maintain it.”

“Good thing Lance and Keith did the best in our training exercises against you,” Hunk comments.

“Indeed.”

“Alright, this is probably the best plan we can execute as of right now. Lance, Keith, Viira is going to be the one in charge of the infiltration, so please try to listen to her,” Shiro says to the two of them. Both of them nod in confirmation.

“We will use the Castle’s weapons to aid the defensive team,” Allura says afterwards. “Do try to be careful in there. If it’s too heavily guarded, retreat. And while I hate to say this, if we cannot execute this plan, the world we are going to will be lost either way, so we may just have to destroy it in their atmosphere.” Everyone nods.

~o~o~

“I know this is the best plan we have, but does anyone else feel reeeeeally bad about this?” Lance asks over comms as the approach the ship. It is as big as it was described.

“I’m pretty sure you’d be crazy if you didn’t feel bad about this,” Keith retorts. Viira is standing behind Keith inside of his lion. The others had already engaged the ship, and are currently fighting off the fighter ships now swarming around the larger ship. Pidge had modified both the Blue and Red lions to be able to stealth like she had done to her own lion, but Lance still felt like a sitting duck flying in close to the large ship. “All right, going in.” Keith soon calls out. He uses his lion’s cannon to fire a hole into the side of the ship for both Blue and Red to be able to crash through. They aimed for one of the hangars, so in the blast they would be able to take out several fighters as well. Once inside, Lance freezes the hole shut.

“Right, let’s get on with ‘Viira’s Wild Ride’,” Lance says, having starting calling this plan that as the plan entails the three of them being  _ on _ the ship while it warps. The three of them exit the lions to make their way for the control room which should be nearby, according to the scans they had done earlier, as well as what knowledge Viira has about the layout of most Galra ships. They encounter many droids, and they are able to take them out with relative ease, Viira’s magic proving to be quite good against them. Viira is currently dressed in her full druid garb, and the few times they encounter an actual Galra soldier, Viira’s appearance as well as throwing around magic bolts scares them right off. Lance has to grab Keith at one point to keep him from running after a soldier, as they don’t have time to chase after them. They reach the control room with relative ease, and Viira quickly takes out the few crewmen in the room. They all silently agree that this is too easy.

“Keep watch, we haven’t run into any druids yet. I’m fairly sure they know we are here,” Viira says as she starts typing into the control panel. Keith and Lance stand near the door, with Lance looking quite nervous. Neither of them like being so far away from their lions. Keith’s eyes suddenly widen.

“Someone’s coming,” Keith says. Lance looks down the hallway, and doesn’t see anyone, but suddenly he’s knocked over by Keith. Not a second too late, as the wall behind where Lance had been standing is now a smoking hole. A druid is now standing in the room. They fire another blast towards the two Paladins, who scramble to get out of the way. Lance tries to fire back with his Bayard, but similar to training with Viira, the druid is able to teleport out of the way. Viira’s attention is taken from the control panels, and fires several bolts of magic towards the druid. “Viira! We’ll take care of this guy, focus on setting the new coordinates!” Keith yells at her. Viira seems reluctant to listen to what Keith is saying, but goes back to the control panel.

Lance and Keith have their work cut out for them fighting the druid and keeping them off of Viira. This druid puts far more power into blast than Viira ever did during training. As well, Viira cannot completely ignore the Paladins working to protect her, and ends up attacking back between entering in codes. Lance manages in several shots, but the druid seems to have some kind of shielding, as the shots are quickly dissipated. Finally, Viira gets to the screen to enter in the new coordinates, but before she can enter in the new coordinates, the druid gets a solid hit to Lance, catching his leg. Lance falls to the ground, his right leg now useless. Before the druid can manage in another hit, Keith essentially tackles the druid. Viira now enters the fight, being unable to ignore it now.

The magic Viira uses now is much different from the magic she used during training. Her bolts look like the magic blade she would use when training, and she fires multiple at a time. Each time they hit a surface, they leave a sizable hole, and they explode into lightning. Keith is keeping the druid as distracted as he can, but he is at the disadvantage being in close range. Lance continues firing from his bayard, but that causes attention to be drawn to him. The druid fires a large bolt at Lance, presumably to take Lance out completely. Keith, however, jumps in front of Lance without second thought, taking the blast. His shield is up, which absorbs part of it, but the bolt pierces the shield, and hits Keith’s stomach before exploding. Lance watches in horror as Keith’s body crumples to the floor, and a pool of blood grows around him.

“No no no no no no, Keith!” Lance yells as he forces himself towards Keith. The wound is bad, with a large chunk of Keith’s lower torso being a bloody mess. This now makes both of them sitting ducks for the druid, but before they can attack again, a large blast forces the druid hard into a wall. Lance cannot help but whip his head towards where the blast came from, and all he sees is Viira, who is now almost arcing energy off of her body. Many bolts in quick succession are sent towards the druid, several of them hitting and piercing the shield around them. Blood can be seen soaking through the druid’s cloak and the druid quickly disappears. Viira quickly directs her attention to the Paladins now on the floor. Lance is holding Keith now, and both of them are covered in Keith’s blood. “You can heal him, right? You have to, I don’t think we can get him into a healing pod quick enough.” Lance is almost to tears. “Come on Keith, don’t die on me now, you reckless asshole!”

Viira says nothing, but quickly presses her hands to Keith’s torso. Her hands glow with energy, but after a moment she removes her hands, Keith’s wound unchanged.

“What’s wrong?” Lance asks in horror.

“My magic is being interfered with.”

“What?” Viira now pushes her mask to show her face. She looks at Keith, biting her lip, before pulling him out of Lance’s arms. She takes off his helmet, and gently turns him over, before pushing up his hair off of his neck. There is a strange mark at the edge of his hairline, that seems to extend up into his head. Before Lance can ask what that was, or what Viira was doing, she places a finger to the visible mark, and the whole thing glows. Lance can now see what the whole thing is. A glyph. Similar to the one Viira sometimes used for magic spells. But then the glyph quickly fades, and when Viira takes her finger away from Keith’s neck, the mark is gone. Viira turns Keith back over onto his back, presses her hands to him, and now his whole body glows purple. Lance watches at the wound on Keith’s side knits closed. She then places her hands on Lance’s injured leg. Viira is now very clearly out of breathe.

“What did you do to Keith?” Lance asks, wondering what went on with the glyph thing. Viira doesn’t answer, she simply gets back up to the control console to input coordinates. She then gets onto voice comms.

“We have a change in plan, Keith has been rendered unconscious. Moving to secondary coordinates.”

“We had a Plan B?” Lance asks as he picks up Keith to try to carry him. Viira confirms the warp location, and the ships jolts as it warps. Lance soon sees what the Plan B is, as the screens around the room show they are now near a large star. “We’re throwing this thing into a star???”

“Yes, and we need to go, now.” Viira says as she relieves Lance of carrying Keith, and they made it for the hangar with their lions. They don’t run into anything on the way, at least until the hangar. Their friend from before is there. There’s still blood on their cloak.

“Korv, leave. Now. Unless you want to sent into this star with the rest of the ship.”

“I never would have pegged you for a traitor, Viira. Then again, you have always been too nice for your own good. But if I’m going to lose this ship, I may as well come out with something. I’m sure Zarkon would be pleased with two Voltron Lions and their paladins...as well a resistance member.”

“Over my dead body.”

“I never said you had to be alive,” Korv says as he fires lightning towards the three of them. Viira grabs Lance’s arm, and teleports the three of them out of the way. Viira is very clearly exhausted now, but only proceeds to put Keith down before engaging Korv. She has her blade summoned, and proceeds to fighting Korv in close range. He did not seem to expect this, as she catches him off guard. He does get out of the way, but seemed to forget that Lance was there, too, and acquires several shots to his back, before Viira stabs him through the chest, and electrocutes his entire body. Korv collapses to the ground, and Viira only quickly moves to get back to Lance and Keith. Lance is staring.

“Get into your Lion. Hopefully the Red Lion will still transport us even though Keith is unconcious.”

“R-right.” Lance says, entering his Lion. The Red Lion does seem to be responding to Viira asking it to open up. Lance crashes through the ice sealing the wall, and the Red Lion follows the Blue. They are just in time to see the Castle of Lion warp in. The Galra ship is now falling in towards the star, and the Lions enter the Castle before it warps back out of the system. After Lance gets out of his lion, he runs for the Red Lion’s hangar, only to find Viira and Keith both still inside Red, and both unconscious.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> alternate title: straight up kill a bitch
> 
> idk if it's obvious where I am heading, as I am biased in my hints as I know the answer


	6. trust and familiarity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> several realizations are made

Keith wakes up, not in a healing pod, but in his bed. He feels some kind of weight on his legs, and opening his eyes, he sees Lance’s arms stretched across them, Lance seeming to asleep. Keith moves his legs, which causes Lance to jolt. The fog in Lance’s eyes quickly clear.

“You’re awake! Oh Thank God,” Lance says, but then his voice changes to yelling. “What the hell did you think you were doing? You could have died. You almost did!”

“Well if I hasn’t taken that shot for you, you’d be the dead one.” Keith stretches. “How come I’m not in a healing pod?”

“Yeah, we tried to put you in one, but they seem to be broken. Coran was getting all kinds of weird readings, and it wouldn’t turn on. But Viira healed most of the damage, it seems.” Lance explains. “Oh, and I won’t feel bad if you don’t remember me cradling you in my arms, as you were almost dead. I guess we’re even now.”

“Ha ha, very funny,” Keith says, and then seems to realize something. “Were you here the entire time I was out?” Lance’s face turns red.

“Well, I was worried about you, jackass.”

“Didn’t mean you had to stay here the whole time.”

“Irrelevant!” Lance yells. “Viira was worried about you, too. She came to check up on you, like, immediately after she woke up.”

“What happened to Viira?” Keith asks with worry in his voice.

“Viira’s fine, she said she expended too much energy healing you and fighting. She was out for about a day. You’ve been out for two.”

“Explains why I’m starving.”

“Yeah, well, let’s go get you something to eat and tell the others you are among the living again.”

Lance and Keith make their way for the living area, and run into Hunk (who Keith ends up being almost crushed by in a hug) and Pidge merely says she’s glad Keith is awake. Shiro, Allura, and Coran are all relieved to see Keith awake as well. When Viira sees Keith, she has a look of relief, but then immediately worry and strangely frets over Keith’s health, asking him many questions about how he feels. He says he feels fine, and visibly he only looks a bit pale. Viira still looks worried.

Lance later mentioned to Keith about Viira doing something to the back of his head. Keith remembers being told he had a weird birthmark on his neck, but other than that he has no idea what Viira would have done. Lance even checks Keith’s neck again, and there is no mark. Keith doesn’t think too much of it.

The next morning, however, Keith wakes up to a splitting headache. He probably would have stayed in bed if it wasn’t for him being starving, and he tries making his way to the kitchen, but his headache is making every light in the castle seem way brighter and every tiny sound the ship makes is apparent to him. The other Paladins are already awake.

“Morning, Keit-what the fuck, you look like shit,” Pidge yells, earning a disappointed look from Shiro for her swearing (not that that ever stopped her). Lance and Hunk are now standing around Keith, who is looking much paler than yesterday.

“I feel like shit,” Keith says before looking up at the two Paladins within his personal space. Both of them suddenly have very shocked looks on their face.

“What’s wrong with your eyes?” Hunk asks. Keith looks back at Hunk, having no idea what he is talking about, but then looks into a piece of equipment in the kitchen shiny enough to give a reflection. He sees what Hunk was referring to. His pupils are blown wide, and look yellowed. Clearly this is not a good sign.

“I don’t know what’s wrong. I can still see fine, in fact everything is way too bright.”

“Well, that makes sense with your pupils being dilated, but they shouldn’t look yellow.”

“I’m going to go find Allura and Coran. Hopefully the healing pods are working again,” Shiro says, before turning to Pidge. “Go try to find Viira, wherever she may be. She may be able to help as well. You guys get Keith to the infirmary.” Lance and Hunk lead Keith the way there, Keith eventually just leaning on Lance to follow him, no longer wanting to keep his eyes open. Shiro soon appears with Allura and Coran, both of them being alarmed by Keith’s condition. They attempt to get him into a healing pod again, but a similar error comes up as before. Coran has no idea what could be causing it, having gone through the system multiple times and finding nothing inherently wrong. Pidge appears a few minutes later with Viira.

“What is this about Keith being sick?” Viira asks before Keith looks in her direction. She sees what’s going on with his eyes, and immediately rushes over. She suddenly forces one of Keith’s eyes open to look at it, but he recoils back.

“Hey, stop that. Everything’s bright enough as it is.” Viira then puts two fingers to the side of Keith’s head. There is a slight glow, and then Keith opens his eyes again. “What did you do? Everything’s not bright anymore.” Which is improving his headache a bit.

“A simple spell to shield one’s eyes. I have to have it up almost constantly, Galran eyes are much more sensitive to bright lights.”

“Do you have any idea what’s wrong with Keith?” Shiro asks. He explains the situation with the healing pods. Viira bites her lip.

“Does this have anything to do with what you did before you healed his wound? That thing you did to the back of his head.” Lance asks.

“I didn’t do anything to him. I _undid_ something.” The Paladins and Alteans look at Viira with varying levels of confusion. “I suppose it would be best to explain.”

“Twelve Galran years ago, which I believe is closer to fifteen or sixteen years for Earth, the Red Lion of Voltron was found. Unfortunately, it was located on a highly volcanic planet, inside of a magma chamber. Even with all of our technology, it was still going to take a while to get it out.

In the meantime, a reading of the Quintessence signature was obtained, and thus the Druids were tasked by Zarkon to find someone with a matching signature to eventually pilot the Red Lion for him. While reading a person’s energy signature is simple enough, trying to find a specific one is like trying to find a specific star in a galaxy when you don’t have coordinates.

I suppose one would say I was very lucky, as I had the _pleasure_ of finding out my young son was a perfect match. I wouldn’t have said I was lucky, as that meant either losing my son to Zarkon, him growing up to be a pawn in Zarkon’s schemes; or members of the resistance killing him to keep Zarkon without a pilot for the Red Lion.

What was actually a lucky thing is that at the time, my mate had been on solo scouting duty, and ran across a planet in a quiet part of the Universe. The people living there had similar body structure to Galrans, had technology, but were not advanced enough to be on the Empire’s radar any time soon so long as no one reported the planet’s location. Which is why we got the idea of hiding our son there. It would still mean losing my son, but I would know that he would still be alive and out of danger.

So, using genetic material of the people living on that remote planet, I was able to alter the appearance of my son to match them so he would blend in. He was young enough at the time where he would not retain memories of being Galran. The only revealing detail being a sealing mark on the back of his head, but that was covered by the strange head fur that species has.

I assume you all can fill in the blanks of my story,” Viira ends with. Everyone just stares at Viira, and they go a few minutes without anyone speaking. Eventually, Lance breaks the silence.

“So, let me get this straight, you’re saying Keith is _Galran_ and your son? What the actual fuck?”

“Lance.” Shiro says soon after, before turning back to Viira. “I don’t want to say you’re lying, but it’s a bit hard to believe.”

“I am aware. It is why I didn’t tell you sooner. But I had to undo the seal on Keith in order to save his life. Keith inherited my ability for Quintessence manipulation, and the seal on him essentially kept that ability in constant use, maintaining his human appearance, and would keep it from accidentally discharging. But, it causes interference with other Quintessence. Once I removed the seal, both my and his energy went to healing the wound. Which is a good thing, I do not think I would have been able to save him healing on my own.”

“Is that what’s causing the healing pods to malfunction?” Hunk asks.

“That’s plausible. The Healing Pods works on a Quintessence manipulating base,” Coran explains.

“Most likely, Keith’s body is attempting to ‘correct’ what it perceives as wrong, which would be his entire human ‘shell’. So, it is like a continuous healing spell.” Viira says afterwards. Coran nods, accepting the explanation.

“So then, the light sensitivity is from his eyes changing into Galran eyes?” Pidge asks next.

“I’ve never heard of someone being in an appearance changing spell for so long,” Allura says next. The group continued talking, attempting to make sense of what Viira just told them, except for one person. Keith has not said anything, the look on his face just one of someone thinking. Lance notices Keith not saying anything.

“I think Keith is in shock.”

“I mean, I don’t blame him,” Hunk adds.

“Hello, Earth to Keith? Come in, Keith.” Lance says, waving his hand in front of Keith’s face. Which gets a reaction out of him as he hits Lance’s hand out of his face.

“You know, I suppose I should be more shocked about this, but I’m not. I mean, it explains some of the weird shit that’s happened to me.”

“Wait, what weird shit?”

“Like being able to open that door when we were trying to help the Balmarrans, or when I fought that druid the first time we went to a Quintessence facility, my hand got burned by lightning but it turned purple. Although I got Quintessence all over me later, which seemed to heal it?”

“It’s possible that magic would interfere with the spell on you to an extent. Which is why Quintessence would quickly put it back.” Keith nods at Viira.

“There’s other things, like seeing the marking that’s on my dagger in Galra ships-”

“You still have that dagger?” Viira asks excitedly.

“Uh, yes.”

“It’s your father’s. A family heirloom of sorts. He thought it would be acceptable to leave with you, as it wouldn’t readily be taken as ‘alien’.”

“You left a dagger with a small child?” Hunk asks apprehensively.

“Yes?”

“Anyway, there’s other weird stuff about me I’ve noticed for a while, like my hearing or my eyes adjusting in the dark almost immediately. Though, I guess I would have never associated that with me not being human.” Keith just shrugs. “I mean, it’s odd finding out that I’m not human, but not terrible.” Keith pauses. “Or maybe I just like the idea of Viira being my mom.” That statement earns him several ‘awwww’s from the others in the room. “Don’t make me regret saying that.”

“If Keith is reverting back to being Galran, how long will it take for this to occur?” Allura asks Viira. Viira thinks for a moment.

“I’m not entirely sure. His own magic is accelerating the process it seems, so perhaps a few weeks? You were right, I’ve never encountered anyone else who altered their shape as long, and it could very well be that as Keith aged the spell would have worn off.”

“Well it’s a good thing we found a magical space lion and went off to find aliens, otherwise that would have been an awkward situation,” Lance says next.

“Right,” Shiro just says blankly to Lance, before turning to Keith. “You should probably go rest, anyway. While I don’t know if I fully believe what Viira told us, you still look bad.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Keith says as he heads for his room. Viira follows him. As they leave, she can hear the others speaking, and overhears them wondering if Viira is causing the weird change in Keith. Though it seems Keith was also able to hear them. “Don’t take it personally, it is a hard story to believe.”

“Yet, you do believe it?” Keith nods. That causes Viira to smile. Before Keith goes back to bed, Viira tries to use magic to relieve some of the pain from Keith’s head, but it seems her magic is being interfered with again, which she assumes to be Keith’s own magic at work. Keith just shrugs it off, and ends up sleeping the rest of the day.

~o~o~

The next few days have the Paladins going from ‘i don’t know if I’m going to believe that Keith is a frickin’ alien’ to ‘holy shit maybe Viira was telling the truth???’. Keith wakes up the day after the explanation paler than he had been, and very itchy. Scratching himself (which causes him to notice how long his nails are now) reveals that his skin is peeling, and purple skin can be seen underneath said peeling skin. His eyes soon change to full yellow, and Keith begins noticing how well he can see colours now.

Viira attempts to explain Galran physiology to him in an attempt to calm him about some of the stranger things happening, such as his hair falling out (thought it was growing back fairly quickly as coarser, dark purple hair. Apparently having longer ‘head fur’, as she calls it, is a characteristic of some Southern Galrans, which her mother was. Northern Galrans tend to have more fur in general.), and also his jaw hurting suddenly. Apparently Galran shed their teeth every four Galran years, which is about every six Earth years, and Keith soon loses several teeth only to feel sharper new teeth quickly growing in. He figures out the source of his headaches, as he has noticed his ears being higher on his head. In Viira’s words, he had his father’s ears which are higher set on his head than hers.

“Wait, so then Keith is going to have cat ears?” Lance asks, half yelling. Keith snaps at him for the yelling part, as his hearing has become far too sensitive. And when Keith attempts to cover his ears, he ends up missing them. His new physiology is going to take some getting used to. Lance puts his hands on the top of Keith’s head to simulate what he is referring to.

“Uh, I suppose?” Viira says questioningly, not knowing what a ‘cat’ is. “His ears will be sitting closer to the top of his head, but they’ll probably be covered with his head fur--er, hair.”

Keith slaps away Lance’s hands, his mood having been fairly dark the entire day. The pain has migrated to being throughout his body, and the peeling skin being extremely itchy was not helping his mood. At least he discovered a new way get back at Lance for annoying him, by standing over Lance and scratching his head. A shower of dead skin cells and hair rains down.

“Ew, gross. Knock it off, Keith.” Lance yells, while trying to shake the skin and hair off of him. Keith just grins.

“I’ll shed on you and everything you love,” Keith deadpans.

“Well, you’re making good progress on that,” Lance says as he starts picking hairs off of Keith’s shirt. Pidge and Hunk are also sitting in the room, working on some kind of machinery, and Pidge makes a face at Lance’s comment. For the most part, everyone is taking Keith’s changing appearance well (Keith comments that Lance is the one taking this whole situation the hardest). The only negative incident was Keith running into Shiro through a dimly lit hallway, and the eyeshine from Keith’s eyes causes Shiro to instinctively engage the threat. Luckily Shiro realized quickly that it was just Keith, but Keith took this as a note to not ever startle Shiro. In the back of his mind, Keith wondered how Shiro would be when sparring against him. He’s not sure he wants to test that.

Lance stands up, looking like he’s going to say something to Keith, but then pauses, now squinting at Keith. Keith raises an eyebrow in confusion as Lance puts his hand on top of his head, and moves it towards Keith. Lance’s hand hits him at eye level.

“You bastard!”

“Huh?”

“How dare you get taller than me!” Well that explains why his whole body hurts. Viira just laughs.

“Keith is actually still fairly short for a Galran. He may get taller.”

“Don’t you fucking dare!”

“It’s not like I can control this shit.” Lance looks and sounds like he’s screaming with his mouth closed, and storms off. Keith is left extremely confused as to why Lance is so mad about this. “How is it that I’m the one changing into an entirely different species than what I thought I was, and yet Lance is the weirdest person on this ship?”

“I have been asking myself a similar question to that for the last six years,” Hunk says without looking up. Keith figures he better go look for Lance, maybe attempt to understand what is happening. Before things get more strange between them. He doesn’t find Lance in the kitchen, his room, or the training room, but does find him in the observation deck. He’s sitting with his arms around his legs and his back turned to the door.

“Don’t you think you’re over reacting a bit?”

“No.” Keith comes over and sits next to Lance. Sitting down, Keith actually appears shorter than Lance. All that new height is in his limbs.

“Why does it matter that I got taller than you?”

“Because it’s one more thing you have over me! I hate being in your shadow!”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Keith is really irritated now, because he doesn’t understand what Lance is going on about.

“Do I really need to spell it out for you? You were the top of Fighter Pilot class, and I only got in because you got kicked out. You saved Shiro from the Garrison officers. You found the Blue Lion, even though it’s not even yours. You’re way stronger than me, and way better at fighting. Not to mention your stupid pretty face got all kinds of attention, even though you never seemed to notice,” that comment seemed to come out more as a mumble, like Lance didn’t want Keith to hear him, but he did anyway. “And then you go and not even remember me!”

“You were actually mad about that?”

“Yes!”

“I’m sorry?” Lance just frowns and turns away from Keith. Keith is still very confused. “You make it sound like I’m better than you.”

“You are!” Lance blurts out back at Keith, the look on his face seeming like he didn’t mean to say that.

“That’s stupid, I’m not better than you. So what if I’m good at some things? You’re smarter than me, or have you not noticed the amount of times you’ve literally grabbed me by the collar to keep me from running after enemies?”

“So you’re aware that you do that?”

“Only after the fact. Temper is one of my vices. I think I got that from Viira, if her kicking my ass when I get an edge on her when sparring is any indication. But still, you are also way better at talking to people than I am. How did you put it before, that I had the social skills of the food goo?”

“No, I said the food goo had better social skill than you.”

“The point still stands. You are the one who talked his way out of a fight when we were on Ilos.” Lance just shrugs. “I’m sure there’s other things that you can do that I can’t. Like, uh,” Keith pauses for a second, “Like, how I can’t swim.”

“You can’t swim?” Lance is shouting now, like what Keith said is the craziest thing he’s ever heard. Keith shrugs.

“Never had a reason to learn.” Lance is still staring. He then suddenly snaps out of it, which startles Keith.

“Next time we’re on a planet with water, I’m totally teaching you how to swim.”

“What? Why?”

“Can’t have your reckless ass drowning himself.” Lance’s grin suggests more.

“Not any other ulterior motives?”

“Whatever do you mean?” Lance says, feigning innocence. Keith just pushes Lance’s face away from him. “Ouch, watch the claws.”

“Sorry.”

“I suggest a nail file. Allura might have one. And while we’re at it,” Lance pulls a larger piece of flaking skin from Keith’s face, “I suggest a long shower and actually scrubbing all this skin off of you so you stop leaving a trail of dandruff and hair wherever you go.”

“It’s gonna come off eventually, I don’t see why I have to scrub it off.”

“Do you even hear yourself? God, why do I have to have a crush on a damn desert-now-space hobo?”

“I don’t know, I question why I have a crush on an idiot who is more distraught over me being an alien than I am.”

“I’m not distraught, it’s just a lot to take in,” Lance just waves his hand to dismiss what Keith is saying. “But if Pidge ever uses the word ‘yiff’ around you, please punch her for me.” Confusion is very apparent on Keith’s face. “And don’t even ask what it means, you don’t want to know.”

“O...kay…”

“Now that we’re being more open about this whole liking each other ‘that’ way, am I allowed to flirt with you now?”

“Like my permission would even stop you. Anyway, sure, as long as it’s not something that would make Pidge roll her eyes.”

“But Pidge rolls her eyes at almost everything I say.”

“Exactly.” Lance stares for a second before gradually breaking out into laughter. Keith easily catches it as well, and they laugh for a good solid minute at the ridiculousness of everything around them, before settling into a more comfortable quiet while watching the nearby stars and nebula slowly move.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and we have our Galra!Keith and Klance finally


	7. elsewhere

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith will get a taste of Galran life whether he wants it or not

After two weeks of essentially shedding his human cocoon (and finally taking a shower to remove dead skin), Keith’s appearance finally stabilizes. Luckily for Lance, Keith didn’t grow any taller.

“You have the chance to go with a whole new hairstyle, and you go back to the mullet?” Lance asks in despair. Keith’s hair had grown back in longer than his hair had been previously, and he essentially just cut it with his dagger.

“Viira said Galra hair takes a long time to grow, so I would prefer having hair that I am used to.” Viira had explained before that for her hair to be as long as it is, she essentially never cut it in the forty years she had been alive. Which was surprising, as her braid only goes halfway down her upper back.

During the time Keith’s appearance had been shifting, the Castle of Lions had been orbiting the planet Illoises, the planet they had saved from the Galra. The inhabitants were understandably very grateful for this, and were very accommodating to the Paladins, giving them supplies and allowing them to stay. When Keith finally visits the planet, he is watched carefully, even after it was explained he was part of the Paladins. Lance, Hunk, and Pidge ended up informally forming the ‘Protect Keith Squad’, and were angry in his place. Keith never reacted much, mostly out of not blaming them for being suspicious.

The only time he did get visibly angry was when Viira was denied service by a shopkeeper. The others backed him up on this, and Viira didn’t know how to react to this. In ended in Viira dragging the younger Paladins away with her to stop the incident from escalating.

“Other Races are going to understandably wary of Galra, and I am not about to fight against it. It is deserved,” Viira says later on.

“I know that, but he didn’t have to be a dick about it,” Keith replies. Viira has a weird expression on her face, most likely from translation being slightly off, but she merely waves off Keith’s words.

“Regardless, if we go to Galra controlled planet, other races will treat you with respect, but it is respect out of fear. Honestly, being treated rudely is almost refreshing.”

“That’s...one way to see that,” Hunk says uneasily. Viira and the younger Paladins are sitting in what looks like a park to the Earthlings, which is a very nice change from being stuck in the Castle.

“I’m a little disappointed, it seemed like that shop had Rivdring spice, and I would really appreciate some kind of Galran flavour.”

“What’s that?” Lance asks.

“Uhm, it’s a common flavouring in South Galran food. Rivdring is this small critling,” the Paladins don’t know what a critling is, but Viira draws something with a stick in the dirt, and it looks kind of like a beetle. “They are very common on Galran. You get the spice by drying them out and then crushing them.”

“You get spice from crushing bugs?” Lance asks with horror. Hunk expresses interest in trying it, which makes Lance motion gagging, and offers to try to go get it for her. She takes him up on that.

“I don’t know if it will taste the same to humans as it does to Galra, but I suppose a tiny bit won’t hurt,” Viira sounds unsure in her words, which worries the Paladins a bit, minus Keith. He had been noticing lately that things tasted different to him, though he had noticed most of his life that his taste in food had always been off compared to others. “Anyway, now that Keith’s appearance has changed fully, perhaps we can go to Varone now.”

“Wait, what?” Keith is jolted out of his thoughts. Why would they go to Varone.

“There is most likely some Galran cruisers left behind on this planet. If we can get one, we could most likely get to the capitol easily and see Balvok, and convince him to give us current communication codes and frequencies.”

“Wait, so then you’d want just the two of us to go there?”

“Well yes, the humans will stand out, and I’m not about to risk the Alteans.”

“I don’t know if Allura and Coran are going to agree to the two of you going to a Galra-controlled planet by yourselves,” Pidge comments. Lance nods in agreement.

“Well, if we want to be able to get any kind of information on what Zarkon is doing, this is one of very few options. I mentioned this to Shiro, and he agreed. So in the very least I will have his help in convincing them.” Lance, Keith, and Pidge’s faces vividly show their surprise that Shiro would agree to this. “Actually, I believe Shiro is currently working on locating a working Galran ship, though I don’t know how much progress he’s made on that. I suppose I should ask him when we return to the Castle tonight.” Any questions about that are cut off when Hunk returns with the spice Viira wanted, and their attention is shifted to figuring out what it was.

Lance ends up taking a pinch from the package, and before Viira can protest otherwise, Lance pops the small amount into his mouth. Though, he soon regrets this, and looks like he’s choking. The other Paladins end up panicking, and after several minutes of alarm and scrambling to find water, Lance is relieved to find out that water washes away the taste.

“Holy shit, I felt like my throat was melting,” he says after a long gulp of water. Hunk doesn’t want to try it anymore. Viira just comments that it would be best to keep it away from the humans. Lance ends up goading Keith to try it, just to see if it’s hot to Galra as well. Keith just shrugs and tries a small pinch. There is a slight heat to it, but nothing in the range that Lance described. Keith jokes that Lance was over-reacting, which offends Lance greatly (“Excuse me, I enjoy spicy food very much. I do not enjoy consuming LAVA.”). Hunk and Pidge decide to leave them to their weird argument and go do something else, and Viira leaves to let Keith and Lance be alone.

~o~o~

Lance meant it when he said he was going to teach Keith how to swim.

“You sure this is a good idea? The others are gonna wonder where we went.” Keith says with apprehension in his voice. He had followed Lance in his Lion, and now the two of them were at a lake far from the city.

“We’re all meeting back at the Castle, anyway. To me, it just sounds like you’re scared of swimming.”

“I am not scared! This just seems pointless.”

“It won’t be pointless if you fall into some sort of amount of water where you can’t just stand.”

“You really think that’s going to happen? We’re in space most of the time.”

“You never know!”

Keith isn’t about to actually admit he is afraid of water. And the fact that he now has  _ fur _ doesn’t help that, as when he showered, it took an hour before he stopped being damp. Obviously, neither had any sort of swimwear on them, and seeing Lance stripped down to just his underwear is starting make Keith think that Lance has ulterior motives. Lance now his arms crossed, looking expectantly at Keith, and he just sighs and starts pulling off his clothes. Keith feels ridiculous next to Lance, and the very clear difference in their bodies now is not helping. Or the fact that Lance is staring.

“I wonder if you feel as fuzzy as you look.”

“Don’t fucking dare,” Keith yells as Lance starts coming closer to him, Lance’s arms stretched out to grab at Keith and a stupid grin on his stupid face. Keith fighting back results in their wrestling match sending them both into the lake. Now Keith feels even more ridiculous (which he didn’t think would be possible) because he looks and feels like a drowned rat. And Lance is laughing.

“Oh wow, you look ridiculous,” Keith just pouts, still sitting in water up to his waist. Lance sees the look on Keith’s face and the fact that Keith’s ears flatten against his head. “Oh, come on, don’t look like that. Here.” Lance holds out his hand to help Keith up. Keith just grabs Lance’s hand and pulls hard, sending Lance head first into the water before standing himself up. His plan to get back at Lance backfires on him slightly, as Lance doesn’t look nearly as silly as Keith did soaking wet. Actually the opposite. Keith frowns.

“This was just your plan on having us both stripped down, wasn’t it?”

“Whatever do you mean? I have nothing but the  _ purest _ intentions of teaching you how to swim.”

“Sure.” Lance just laughs, and after standing back up, grabs Keith’s arm and pulls him deeper into the water. The water is now up to his chest.

“Come on, just try floating.” Keith is very apprehensive, but tries anyway, attempting to take his weight off of his legs. However, unlike Lance, who is demonstrating floating and keeping his head above the water, Keith’s body proceeds to sink, and as soon as the water comes up to his nose, he stops attempt to float and goes back to standing. Lance looks at him questioningly.

“I just sink. Maybe Galra aren’t built to swim at all.”

“Please. There’s gotta be water on whatever planet the Galra come from. Try floating on your stomach.” Lance proceeds to demonstrate, and idly swims in a circle around Keith. Keith is feeling quite irritated, but tries anyways. He does manage to float this time, but is required to move his limbs much harder than Lance to keep his head above water. As soon as he stops, he starts to sink again, which causes him to panic slightly, and he stands up again. “See, now it worked.”

“Yeah, but I have to actively try to keep myself floating.”

“That’s weird. Maybe Galra are just really dense?”

“If that’s the case, you should be sinking like a rock.”

“Ha ha.” Lance spends the next hour trying to get Keith to be able to swim ‘normally’ but resigned to calling ‘Keith able to keep his head above water’ a success. After the get out of the water (and Lance has a good laugh at Keith shaking his whole body to get the excess water clinging to his fur out), Lance says that Keith deserves a reward for his progress. Keith is about to tell Lance to fuck off, because how he says it is quite suggestive, but in reality Lance just pecks Keith on the cheek. Lance thinks it was completely worth it, seeing Keith’s face turn dark purple and his ears stand up straight, at least until Keith punches Lance square in the stomach. While Lance is gasping to regain his air, Keith is apologizing profusely, apparently he didn’t mean to punch Lance, he just did it on reflex. At least Lance gets a kiss back out of it.

~o~o~

Back on the Castle of Lions, Viira, Shiro, Allura, and Coran have a long discussion about Viira’s plan to go to a Galra controlled planet, with Keith, to obtain a means of getting more information. While the information would be greatly appreciated, there is a great amount of risk involved.

“I cannot condone allowing you and Keith to go alone,” Allura says to Viira.

“Keith and I going alone is the safest way of doing this, as we will barely be noticed in a busy trade city. The humans will stand out too much, and at this point most of the military knows of the Princess’ existence and appearance.” Viira tries to say calmly, but there is noticeable annoyance in her voice. This argument has been going on for half an hour, and been going in circles.

“And I have been telling you, Alteans can change their appearance to match other speci-”

“But you still look like you,” Shiro cuts her off, which earns him a glare. “If the military is actively looking for anyone who fits your description, you going would be a huge risk. And we’re not about to lose you again.”

“If I may,” Coran begins, “the Altean’s appearance altering abilities do have their limits, but in the very least  _ my  _ description should not be readily known, so my accompanying you should not cause issues.” Viira’s expression shows her concern. Coran had demonstrated what he meant, having shifted in a different race: a short race with yellowed skin and a nose far too large for their faces.

“As I said, non-Galran are heavily discriminated against on Galran planets. But,” Viira pauses, thinking, “if it will make you all feel better, I suppose Coran coming along can be made to work. But as I explained, I go to see Balvok alone.” Viira had explained earlier that he would not talk about anything related to the Resistance with others around, even if Viira vouched for them. Understandably, members of the resistance are wary of speaking about it in front of anyone they do not recognize of it. But, in the very least, an agreement has finally been made.

~o~o~

Lance laughs for a solid five minutes after seeing what Coran shifted into, which is apparently called Vergr (Viira mentioned that the Vergr were one of the few races the Galran didn’t treat like complete garbage, as they had a very extensive trade network and have a lot of mining experts), before he has to stop himself from lack of air. He then spends the next twenty minutes warning Keith that if he doesn’t come back, he will find him in the afterlife and kick his ass, and generally worrying.

“Thanks, I’ll miss you,” Keith ends up kissing him on the cheek just to get him to stop babbling, which works wonderfully. Pidge motions gagging. Pidge, Hunk, and Viira (though Viira’s hand in it was more translating Galran base code and control instructions) had spent the last two days fixing the cruiser, as well as changing the identification on it in case the ship had been logged as left on a liberated planet. Viira had explained the autonomous scanning that is done within Galra space, so they didn’t want to risk getting caught that way.

Keith is surprised when Viira asks if he wants to pilot the craft.

“I’ve never piloted anything Galran before,” Keith says, extremely unsure of it. Viira says it’s similar to the controls of his lion, and she can explain any differences to him.

“I just thought you would enjoy it, you’ve always loved flying.”

“Have I?” Keith asks. They are now in the ship itself, preparing to leave. Keith did end up agreeing to pilot it, though Coran is sitting in the co-pilot’s seat, and Viira is right behind Keith’s position.

“Yes, it was sometimes the only way to get you to calm down when you were very young. Your father would sit you in his lap so you could pretend like you were the one piloting,” Viira says with fondness in her voice.

“I see,” Keith pauses for a bit, before speaking up again, “Is my father still alive?”

“Hmm? Oh yes, he’s alive. I mentioned him before, though I suppose not in context. His name is Thace.”

“Oh. I guess that explains why you want the communication codes so much,” Keith stays quiet while they leave the Castle. While they are able to warp most of the way, it turns out that Galran ships follow specific warp paths, so while they are close to Varone, it is still a few hours flying before they get to the planet. Most of the trip is mixed with Coran attempting small talk, which Keith doesn’t participate much in, and a handful of questions from Keith to Viira about his childhood.

“Was my name something different when I was little?” is one question Keith asks, something he had been wonder ever since he found out Viira was his mother, but it seems odd to ask.

“No, ‘Keith’ is the name I gave you,” which explains why she pronounced it differently than everyone else, pronouncing the ‘i’ separately from ‘ke’. “In the old Galran language is means something like ‘Living Fire’, which I suppose ended up being far too fitting for you.” Quintessence matching the Lion of Fire. Too fitting. Keith doesn’t ask anything more about his childhood. It’s too weird for him to hear.

Once in the Varonian atmosphere, they can see the capitol city of the planet. It’s very hard to miss, the city sprawls across a fifth of the continent it is located on. Coran seemed to notice Keith’s shock, and explained that many highly advanced planets have cities like this, preferring to concentrate populations in specific areas. Keith does notice that there doesn’t seem to be much for structures built up anywhere else on the continent.

Viira directs Keith to a place he can land and park the cruiser. Coming out of the hangar area, Keith finally gets to see what the city looks like. It’s not at all what he expected. He had been on the Galran warships, with their dark colours and purple lights. But the Varonian city is bright, much of the buildings being a mix of stone and metal, with the purple lighting accenting it. He can see several Galra walking around, wearing visors that are probably something like sunglasses, as even with the spell shielding his eyes, he can tell the Varonian sun is bright. Coran seems really happy being here, and is talking endlessly about how the planet was ten thousand years ago, saying he is happy they maintained the Varonian architecture model. He then points out the native Varonians; bird-like humanoids with feathers instead of hair, but also scales. Keith can only think of dinosaurs.

Viira wants to immediately head for the military warehouse Balkov is stationed at, and wants Coran and Keith to wait outside for her. Coran argues that they will be fine going elsewhere in the city, they have communicators with locators on them, so they will be able to find each other later. Also they have no idea how long Viira will take. Keith just thinks Coran wants to look around the city, being happy to be on a planet that is familiar to him. Viira gives in, but literally bends down to be eye level with Coran, and flat out says that if anything happens to Keith, she will eviscerate him. Keith is unsure if he should be happy about Viira being so protective of him, or scared.

Walking around the city, Keith feels extremely exposed with all the other Galra walking around, but at the same time completely invisible. No one looks twice at him, and even in his regular clothing (minus red jacket), he blends in seamlessly. Even Coran, with his ridiculous (at least to him) appearance is largely ignored, Keith having seen several others of the Vergr race around the city.

Keith is now sitting on the side of a large fountain while Coran is looking through what seems to be a food market (perhaps like a farmer’s market?), excitedly going from stall to stall. Keith wonders what he would have done if it had just been Viira and himself coming to this planet. Maybe Viira had something in mind for them to do once she was done dealing with her contact? He’ll have to wait to find that out. Coming out of his thoughts, he looks around to see where Coran is, but doesn’t immediately spot him. He gets up to look around more, but after five minutes of searching, he cannot find him. Great, Coran ditched him. He contemplates activating his communicator to yell at Coran, be decides against it. If Coran wants to find Keith, he’ll have to try.

Keith uses this as a chance to look around more, but apparently he wanders too far from the market area, as he is now in a part of the city that does not nearly look as clean as where he had been. As Keith mentally attempts to retrace his steps back to the market, he feels something pressed into his back.

“Drop your GAC credit and no one gets hurt.”

“Don’t got any,” Keith responds, looking over his shoulder, seeing a furless Galra. He guesses there is a gun being pressed into his back.

“You expect me to believe that?”

“Yep,” is the last thing Keith says before dropping to the ground. Before his mugger can fire, he sweeps his leg to knock him to his feet. The landing causes him to drop the gun, which Keith grabs and is now pointing at his assailant. Before Keith can tell the guy to get lost, however, three more Galra, these ones clearly in military uniform, have come to see what the commotion is.

“What’s going on here?” One of the Galra says, and Keith realizes the situation of him pointing a gun at a now downed man is looking pretty incriminating.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a short summary of Viira: *holding Keith to her chest* "Don't come near me or my son ever again!". This will be more apparent next chapter.
> 
> where did Coran go? probably not very far, and Keith is being a butt


End file.
